Newspaper apologises to MP for ‘racist' cartoon
The controversial cartoon depicted Ms Sultana on a raisin box, which she described as 'brownfacing' and mocking her surname.
Ms Sultana criticised The Observer's apology as 'mealy-mouthed' for not explicitly labelling the cartoon as racist or directly naming her.
The cartoon also featured Jeremy Corbyn with communist symbols, satirising the new political party he is forming with Ms Sultana.
Ms Sultana resigned from the Labour Party earlier this month to establish a new political party with Mr Corbyn.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
10 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Labour focused on appeasing Reform, not beating them, says Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn has accused the Labour government of 'appeasing' Reform UK by 'scapegoating' migrants and minorities for its own domestic policy failures, saying his new leftwing political party would take on Nigel Farage instead. The veteran leftwing MP, who confirmed last week he was launching a new, as yet unnamed, movement with former Labour MP Zarah Sultana, said British politics was at a 'critical juncture' with the rise of rightwing populism. He said he saw their role as providing hope, not fear. And he accused the Labour party, which he led between 2015 and 2020, of 'paving the path' for Reform's electoral success, by failing to take on a 'rigged economic system' and blaming immigrants for the problems in society. In less than a week, more than 500,000 people have signed up to the new movement which is explicitly aimed at left-leaning voters who have backed Labour, the Greens or the collection of Gaza-focused independents who saw off Labour candidates in four constituencies in last year's election. Polling before the party launched suggested it could gather as much as 10% of the vote nationally. However, new parties usually struggle to maintain momentum, and turning polls into votes relies on building an effective campaign machine, which is difficult to do from scratch. Writing for the Guardian, Corbyn said there was a 'huge appetite' for a reset of the 'broken' political system, under which the traditional two-party domination has broken down. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'Up and down the country, there is huge appetite for an economic reset. One that brings water, energy, rail and mail into public ownership. One that invests in welfare, not warfare. One that makes the wealthiest in society pay a bit more in tax to ensure that everyone can live in dignity,' he said. 'This is the political vision that can inspire hope, not fear. The great dividers want you to think that migrants and minorities are responsible for the problems in our society. They're not. 'Those problems are caused by a rigged economic system that protects the interests of billionaires and corporations. By scapegoating migrants and minorities for its own domestic failures, Labour has paved the path for Reform UK. 'This Labour government is here to appease Reform. We are here to defeat Reform. We are at a critical juncture, and we need an alternative, now.' The former Labour leader added: 'Politics should be about empowerment. Instead, people are shut out of the decisions that affect their daily lives. For too long, top-down political parties have patronised their members and disempowered the communities they claim to represent.'
Telegraph
19 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Corbyn's Left party is even more dangerous than we feared
Zarah Sultana does not want for energy or enthusiasm. She may lack other qualities – political judgment, for example, or a sense of perspective – but these can be forgiven in one so young. But the interview she gave to the Marxist in-house media organisation of choice, Novara, yesterday showed the Coventry South MP at her finest: brimming with confidence and excitement at the recent launch of her new political party and evangelically enthusiastic for the change she is determined it will achieve. She was like one of those Duracell bunnies that never seems to stop hopping about, energised by her own rhetoric and ideas. Inevitably – and herein lies one of the new, unnamed party's most vulnerable weaknesses – she was at her most passionate when discussing (or rather, when she was repeating clichés and sound bites regarding) Gaza. It's a weakness because the conflict there between Israel and Hamas terrorists may not (we hope) be as high profile a news item by the time the UK goes to the polls to elect a government in 2028 or 2029. And building a movement on an issue that may not have the same resonance in a few years' time is fraught with dangers. Also, Sultana likes to believe that a hard-Left party will, simply by its existence, appeal to working-class communities. This is an article of faith among such activists, who remain convinced, despite acres of evidence to the contrary, that working-class voters are instinctively drawn to the extremes of the political Left. Yet those traditionally labelled as working-class seem not to have bought into the keffiyeh fetish so beloved of most of the white middle-class protesters who take part in the weekly Israel hate-fests to which the rest of us are now mostly inured. Like so many on the Marxist Left, Sultana seems unable to make her way to the end of any interview without demanding that Britain's current leadership face trial at the Hague. This is almost a Pavlovian response to events in the Middle East and is well beloved of hard-Left activists. Remember the middle-class wet dreams of many critics of the Iraq war who regularly used to predict Tony Blair's imminent arrival at the Hague? There were even TV dramas made about it to assuage the ravenous appetite of those who were struggling to cope with their disappointment that no one was taking them seriously. And so, it is with those who fulminate against Keir Starmer and David Lammy and who demand they face international 'justice ', based on the erroneous belief that the Israeli war machine depends exclusively on the British arms industry. If there is a similarity to the arguments frequently made by climate change activists regarding Britain's culpability for global temperature rises, it lies in the fact that unilateral action by the UK would have no serious impact on either situation. To demand that those who disagree with you should be sent to prison is a strangely central American solution to any policy conflict. And perhaps it serves as a warning of the ideological purity and intolerance that afflicts all such far-Left splinters when they first form. 'The Right doesn't have a monopoly on working-class anger,' Sultana enthused. Well, perhaps not, but there can't be that many housing estates where residents are enthusiastically signing up to her new party because of their anger at the number of people who refuse to believe that 'trans women are women', which will inevitably be one of the unshakeable principles of the new party. Yet when it comes to the real cause of working-class anger – the intolerable levels of legal immigration into our country and the continuing humiliation of our border security by the daily arrivals of those fleeing persecution in [checks notes] France – Sultana's response was all about household bills and nationalising the water companies. That answer may require some work before the televised election debates in a few years' time. It should be noted, however, that despite the many grotesque and occasionally entertaining fallacies and contradictions of the hard-Left mindset, electoral success is not actually beyond the reach of the new party and its (for the moment) co-leaders, Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn. With Reform UK upending everyone's expectations, with Labour at a historic low in the polls and the Conservatives on the verge of extinction, who can say to what extent the new party will serve as a disruptor to the established political process? It may have an electoral appeal that is limited to those who believe in growing both the welfare and tax bills exponentially while at the same time cancelling economic growth due to climate concerns, but under the first-past-the-post electoral system, it is at least conceivable that such a message could prove the least unpopular among competing policies in some parts of the country. At the very least, the new party will be a headache for the current Government and governing party. How long that remains the case will depend on how long Ms Sultana can maintain her Tiggerish optimism. Never have the next four years seemed quite so long.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Oil tycoon Shvidler loses appeal over UK's Russian sanctions
LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - Billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler on Tuesday lost his appeal against British sanctions imposed on him over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine at the UK's Supreme Court, a ruling lawyers said makes it difficult for similar challenges to succeed. Russian-born Shvidler, who is a British and U.S. citizen, was sanctioned over his association with former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, plus his former position as a director of London-listed Russian steel producer Evraz (EVRE.L), opens new tab. Shvidler – whose net worth is estimated by Forbes magazine at $1.6 billion – appealed to the Supreme Court, with his lawyers arguing that others with greater involvement in business of importance to Russia were not sanctioned, citing BP's (BP.L), opens new tab previous joint venture with Rosneft ( opens new tab. The Supreme Court rejected Shvidler's appeal by a four-to-one majority in a ruling that Shvidler said "brings me back to the USSR". The ruling also maintains Britain's 100% record of defending its Russian sanctions in court. Shvidler said in a statement that no British companies or business people with ties to Russian state-owned companies have been sanctioned, adding that Britain's sanctions were "more about cheap virtue-signalling for purely political purposes". "There may be little public sympathy for me, as a wealthy US/UK businessman, but this judgment applies to all who face state power," he added. Britain's Foreign Office, which has overseen the sanctioning of more than 1,700 individuals or entities since Russia's invasion, welcomed the ruling "and the message it sends about the strength of the UK sanctions regime". Shvidler had said British sanctions have destroyed his business and disrupted his and his family's lives. His lawyers previously said he has no involvement in or influence over Russian politics and had not even been to Russia since attending the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin's funeral in 2007. But the majority of the Supreme Court ruled that the sanctions struck a fair balance between Shvidler's rights and the aims of the sanctions regime. In the majority's judgment, Judges Philip Sales and Vivien Rose said sanctioning Shvidler "sends a clear signal to people in Mr Shvidler's position that they would be wise to distance themselves from Russian business now". But Judge George Leggatt, in a strident dissenting ruling, said Britain's "flimsy reasons" for sanctioning Shvidler did not justify the "serious invasion of liberty" sanctions entailed. He noted BP's profitable joint venture with Rosneft, having two members on its board, and said it was irrational to only sanction Shvidler if "sanctioning an individual for working as a director of a company which had invested in the Russian extractives sector was thought likely to contribute to achieving the purposes" of British sanctions. BP declined to comment. Maia Cohen-Lask, a partner at Corker Binning, said the Supreme Court's ruling was "a huge blow not just for Mr Shvidler but for any person who has been sanctioned despite their lack of any links to the Putin regime". The Supreme Court also dismissed a separate appeal brought by Russian businessman Sergei Naumenko, whose 44 million euro ($51 million) superyacht was detained in London.
